Generally, a semiconductor manufacturing process comprises a fabrication process and an assembly process. The fabrication process is defined as the process of manufacturing semiconductor chips in various process chambers. That is, a thin film is deposited on a wafer and selectively etched. These steps are repeated, thus processing a specific pattern. Meanwhile, the assembly process is defined as the process of individually separating the chips manufactured through the fabrication process, and coupling each chip to a lead frame, thus providing a finished product.
In this case, the process of depositing the thin film on the wafer or etching the film deposited on the wafer is conducted in a process chamber at a high temperature using noxious gases, such as Silane, Arsine, or boron chloride, and a process gas, such as hydrogen. While the process is conducted, various kinds of ignitable gases and noxious gases containing corrosive impurities and noxious elements are produced in the process chamber in large quantities.
Thus, the semiconductor manufacturing equipment is provided with a scrubber. The scrubber is mounted to the rear end of a vacuum pump which creates a vacuum in the process chamber, and purifies exhaust gas discharged from the process chamber prior to being discharged to the atmosphere.
That is, in the fabrication process of depositing the thin film on the wafer, etching the thin film, and repeating the depositing operation and the etching operation in the process chamber, thus forming a pattern, and thereby manufacturing a semiconductor chip, the byproducts produced in the chamber are fed through an exhaust line to the vacuum pump for creating a vacuum in the chamber and the scrubber for processing harmful compounds.
However, reactive compounds are deposited on the exhaust line, the vacuum pump, the scrubber, and other parts, so that associated apparatus may develop problems, and the lifespan of the apparatus may be shortened. Consequently, this affects the process of treating the wafer.
In order to solve the problem, as shown in FIG. 1, a collector 3 is mounted between the rear end of the process chamber 1 and the front end of the vacuum pump 2, thus allowing the byproducts fed from the chamber to be immediately collected and received therein.
However, it takes a long time to collect various kinds of reactive byproducts using one collector 3, and a large amount of byproducts is collected in the collector 3, so that a gas flow passage is narrowed. Consequently, the pressure of the process chamber required for the wafer treating process cannot be controlled, so that it is difficult to conduct the process.
Thus, when the accumulated amount in the conventional collector, having a construction limited to a predetermined volume, exceeds a predetermined amount, the collector must be replaced with a new one. The conventional collector is manually replaced with a new one.
The byproduct collecting apparatus of the semiconductor producing equipment is exposed to and collects ignitable gas, corrosive gas, noxious gas, and harmful compounds. When the byproduct collecting apparatus has been used for a lengthy period of time, the collector is filled with the byproducts. In order to replace the collector with a new one, the collector itself must be separated from the process chamber. As such, when the collector is separated from the chamber, some of the harmful substances or gases are exposed to the outside. This compromises safety. Further, because of the time spent on the replacement, the operation rate of the process chamber and the productivity thereof are reduced.